Mapping intersectionality: a conceptual and methodological model for the study of inequalities and discriminations

Introduction

Intersectionality is a concept that has gone viral in the past decade, becoming the most prominent analytical framework for analyzing inequality. Its main premises are that people differently positioned in relation to their gender, ethnicity, age, social class, sexual orientation, etc., experience inequality in different ways. This shows that the interconnection of specific social positions produces concrete forms of inequality and discrimination that are differently configured in different spaces.

The Need for a New Framework

Despite the expansion of this concept, there is a lack of theoretical or methodological proposals that characterize how this variability is configured. This has led to a prevailing use of intersectionality as a vague concept.

Objectives of INTERMAPS

INTERMAPS aims to make a significant paradigm shift in intersectionality studies by proposing a new theoretical and methodological model. This model will:

1. Maintain the original purposes and motivations of the concept.
2. Develop a specific framework that can establish a systematization and characterization of intersectional dynamics.
3. Include a new theoretical model for conceptualizing intersectional inequalities from a spatial and emotional perspective.
4. Develop new specific methods that combine and integrate qualitative, quantitative, digital, and spatial (GIS) approaches.
5. Follow an empirical application that will utilize an intercategorical approach.

Expected Outcomes

This approach will allow:

• An analysis of intersectional dynamics in themselves.
• The creation of new indicators of intersectional inequality and discrimination.
• The establishment of a characterization and mapping of intersectionality.

Broader Implications

INTERMAPS will enable a better understanding of how structural inequalities are (re)produced and how they differently affect people’s everyday lives. It aims to build bridges between:

• Feminist and postcolonial theories.
• Critical geographies and social psychology.
• Overcoming the divide between quantitative and qualitative approaches in the social sciences.